Lak

Lak (лакку маз lakku maz) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lak-Dargic branch native to the central highlands of Daghestan, Russia (Laksky and Kulinsky districts, plus Novolaksky after the 1944 forced relocation), with ~150K speakers including diaspora in Daghestan's lowland cities and Central Asian republics. It is one of the constitutionally co-official languages of the Republic of Daghestan. Lak has a 4-class noun gender system (with masculine, feminine, and two non-personal genders), an ergative-absolutive case structure with up to 40 case-form combinations including locative series, and an inventory of around 60 consonants featuring ejectives, pharyngealized series, and uvulars. Despite its modest speaker base it has a literary tradition since the 19th c. with poets like Mahmud of Kakhab-Roso, and Lak-language newspapers (Ilchi) and broadcasts continue today.